Author Archives: Law

The Theft of the Magical Wall

It’s hard to keep secrets from players. They have a tendency to wheedle key information out of the most unreasonable places, bullying NPCs or casting high-level divinations to get plot details far before they should. In my experience, most of … Continue reading

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Group Checks

Most rolls in D&D are made by a single character. Only the cleric makes a saving throw when she looks at a medusa. Only the rogue tries to disarm a trap. Only the fighter swings his sword at the goblin. … Continue reading

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Lan, the Perfect Fight

I would never go so far as to say that most of my sessions turn out the way I plan, but often they’re reasonably close. My players rarely look into a murder, check the crime scene, interview witnesses, research the … Continue reading

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House Rule: Guns

Concept: Alternate gun mechanics Tested in: Various Eight Arms campaigns What it is: D&D assumes a standard medieval fantasy setting, and Pathfinder assumes a medieval fantasy setting that likes to pretend it isn’t standard. The Eight Arms world time-advanced that … Continue reading

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Losing Faith

This is a DMing advice blog, not a personal journal. As such, I don’t talk a lot about my daily life. I don’t think it’s very interesting to see me talk about how I feel about the news or how … Continue reading

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The B-Team in Song

Last post, I briefly mentioned Leaf’s session write-ups. For the A-Team, one player did all of our session recaps as MS Paint scribbles, and they’re delightful. For the B-Team, that player bowed out and session write-up responsibilities rotated among everyone … Continue reading

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The B-Team

Some characters just aren’t as good as others. Whether due to rules that don’t work out as intended, abilities that clash with each other, underpowered choices, or simple dumb luck, these characters have to acknowledge that they’re just not keeping … Continue reading

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House Rule: Mitigated Save-or-Dies

For November I had a series of short posts about weird mechanics I’ve used or played in games. Before I posted anything I asked my players about any mechanics they thought would a good fit for one of those posts, … Continue reading

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Talent vs. Effort

This comment came in recently on the article In Defense of D&D Stats in Simple Language: The Definition of Charisma: I think the use of the word “empathy” was the one mistake in your article. Psychopaths by definition don’t have … Continue reading

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Faith: A Love Letter to Automatic Bonus Progression

I love D&D’s vast array of magical items. When I started gaming, this was the section of the Dungeon Master’s Guide in which I spent the most time, using different items to come up with character or adventure ideas. I … Continue reading

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